Searching for a Great Summer Read

The joyous noise of fireworks is once again upon us, which means we’re halfway through summer. While I always look forward to the celebrations and gatherings associated with the Fourth of July as one the highlights of the season, one of my best, recurring summertime pleasures is to find a good book to dive into and get lost. When the air is steamy with heat, I’m drawn to the likes of Grisham, Connelly or King.

This year has turned out different—I haven’t read a book because my quest to find a new author hasn’t panned out. I’ve checked some online book referrals and feedback for new works, looked at the bestseller lists and more, hoping to find the perfect mid-summer, page-turning writer. I’ve struck out. Not giving up, I hoped a trip to the bookstore would end my search. Seeing books up close usually persuades me to give in and try something new, so I made the trek to closest bookseller.

When I arrived, the store was jamming. There was a line in the coffee shop and the polite buzz of easy conversation floated in the air as the consumers happily wandered around searching for, I was sure, the same type of book I wanted. Each subject section had prominently displayed signs advertising the bestsellers, other top reads of the season and famous authors.

Some of the shelves had little review cards placed strategically in front of books with blurting, eye-catching headlines. Here’s a sampling of what I saw:

Best Mystery Thriller of the Season!

Such a Thrilling Read!

You Won’t Want to Put This One Down!

Yes, too many exclamation points. I’m sure most of these books are good, maybe even great, and for the most part I was compelled to pick them up. The problem I had is that I wasn’t sure what kind of book I wanted, so the generic headlines didn’t help and I kept looking and looking.

I ended up leaving without a book.

It can seem as though bestselling books appear out of nowhere, kind of like crabgrass in the sun, but the reality is that most top books have been reviewed, which in turn greatly enhances their visibility. While the attention-grabbing headlines failed on me—online and in store—I know they work on most of the book-buying readers. But they aren’t real reviews from readers, and maybe that’s what stopped me from selecting a book.

And it’s real reviews and their importance that leads me back to Onspring.

Onspring Is On It!

There are a lot of places where you can find reviews of Onspring’s platform, but only a handful from the real, vetted voices of users. Gartner’s Peer Insights website showcases vendors and products with reviews from real customers. Onspring is honored that our customers expressed their views of our solutions on this site and our overall rating on Peer Insights is five stars. You can check out the reviews customers have given on their Onspring experience on the Gartner Peer Insights page, and here’s a sampling of those reviews:

The Best GRC Solution. Onspring is hands down the best solution I’ve found to manage our audits, SOX testing and continuous monitoring.

Onspring is extremely grateful to these customers for reviewing our platform and sharing their experiences with us and everybody else. It is what we strive for. Most importantly, we know the reviews are genuine because they are rigorously scrutinized by Gartner. These are honest reviews from real customers.

On my next trip to the bookstore, I hope to find a book with a review as trustworthy as the ones on Peer Insights about Onspring. That might be a tall order, but I hope not. Good writers keep striving for better books—and great reviews—and Onspring, like bestselling authors, won’t rest on the high praise already received. We will work hard to keep earning good reviews while making sure our clients are 100% satisfied.

Happy reading!

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